Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) quoted today in the CSM on the dubious idea of Star Chamber-style “drone courts”:

Congress will carefully consider any drone-court proposal, Sen. Ron Wyden (D) of Oregon told National Public Radio on Thursday. Senator Wyden has demanded access to secret documents about the lethal drone attacks on Anwar al-Awlaki, an American cleric living in Yemen who was killed in 2011.

For his part, Wyden expressed reservations “about this idea of just setting up more special courts.”

“I mean, it’s not as if we’ve struck the right balance with respect to the FISA court at this point in terms of protecting the American people. I’ve been trying to get a number of these opinions declassified for years now,” he added, “and I haven’t been able to do it.”

The very creation of such a monstrosity would bring America a giant step closer to a real-world version of Orwell’s 1984.